Stuch and Bruch is the idea that every fencing technique has a counter and every counter has a technique. Technique and counter are two major components of German swordsmanship and a fair description of my screenwriting adventures and life.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Who's Your Audience?

While squealing girls, Jack-o-holics, and pirate fans worldwide are waiting for Captain Jack to stagger back onscreen May 25th, rumors of his confusing storyline are already burning up keyboards. At World's End is sure to be dissed by critics for not dumbing down to audiences in the same way Dead Man's Chest was criticized for being too complex to follow. But the wallet of the viewer is louder than the voice of the critic and the reason this franchise works is because Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio know exactly who they are writing for.

Okay, there are a whole lot of other reasons the POTC films work -- Depp, Bloom, Verbinski, Bruckheimer, Rick Heinrichs, Penny Rose, Hans Zimmer... it goes on and on.

The point here is that all of these guys know there's a great packhorse made up of POTC fans carrying this trilogy on its back into mind-numbing legendary explosiveness and it's that beast that has to be fed -- not the critics.

5 comments:

Mary An, you need to face the facts: you love Terry Rossio! Ephiny, I know. But the way you gush and carry on over this man's work is nothing short of treament the Beattles got from teenage girls in the early 60s.

Your fixation is cute in a way, but it also reminds me of a little dittie that was popular in the back half of the 1980s.

"Gonna have to face, you're addicted to Rossio!"

Rose covered glasses tend to skew one's objectivity on the true greatness, or lack their of, of an artistic offering rendered. I LOVED the second "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, but the third and upcoming one, (based on the preview for it I saw while watching Spidy 3 last weekend) make it look like a dud.

Anyway, all I submit is that you TRY to be objective, and control your raging (post) teenage horemones. Robert Palmer may have coined it, but now in 2007 E.C. Henry's moderninzing it...